The lecture I was planning on attending this morning was cancelled, so the Tested crew had more time to watch the early rounds of the barista championship and quite a lot of the Brewers Cup.

Unfortunately, I had absolutely no idea who I was watching, most of the time. As an outsider, I have to say the announcers didn't do a particularly good job introducing people during the Brewer's Cup.

In that competition, there were a stunning variety of techniques on display -- the Clever Cone filter device was very popular as were Hario V60s, but I also saw press pots, one of those Hario things with the cloth filter in a glass orb hanging above a carafe (no idea what it's called), and even a siphon pot. No Aeropresses though.

While the Barista Championship is very exciting and focuses on showmanship and knowledge, the Brewer's Cup is singularly focused on simply making a great cup of coffee (or three) for the judges, which is very appealing to me. The innovation happening in brewed coffee is very exciting, and evident in the fact that I saw 5 different techniques used in the first five rounds of the Brewer's Cup I watched.

It was a great first day. I drank a ton of fantastic coffee, met some very interesting folks, and am just generally stoked to be here.

Will Smith is one of the guys you see all the time at Tested.com. In addition to loving technology, Smith is a die hard coffee and espresso fanatic.

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